The shuriken blossom and the bird
by born to lose 7
Summary: I loved him. He loved me. We both had no idea how the hell our friendship became romance, but we figured we'd both have enough time to figure it out eventually. We were smart, we were strong, we were happy, we had time to figure it all out later. We were so young and strange as it is...Neji and I were being naive, but hey that's what love will do to you pre-Neji's death
1. TenTen's strange morning

**A/N: I swear I'm not making a million different unfinished fics on purpose… I'll get back to them, or at least I'll really try. This is Nejiten because the idea popped into my head, I love this pairing, I watched Naruto today and I HAVE MICROSOFT WORD BACK SO I CAN WRITE! This chapter is just short and sweet but it'll develop into longer and more serious chapters by the next or by the next few chapters. Hope you like it! **

**Xoxo**

**Borntolose7**

**xXx**

**TenTen's strange morning**

It was a beautiful morning. Pretty birds chirped their pretty little songs, the sky was a beautiful, pristine blue with fluffy white clouds floating peacefully, the early morning sun casting a nice golden glow onto them. The sun also illuminated my cozy bedroom and was, thankfully, not taking its beautiful sun shinny-ness into my eyes.

Yeah, I had to admit that this was a beautiful morning. Everything about it made me feel comfortable, calm, and happy. I felt like nothing could go wrong today. I let myself smile faintly and tried to enjoy it.

Because I knew. That every morning that started out as good as this one always resulted in a horrible day **and** night. I hated mornings. I grumbled. I complained. I glared at people who bumped into me and muttered under my breath when people were being obnoxious. All that negativity, no matter how brief, balanced out the rest of my day. My best days always happened after my worst mornings. It was almost an exact science.

Well, I thought so anyway. Neji would always scoff and say something like: "If you want to even bother calling it an exact _science,_ you might want to try and apply _logic_ to it." Or something of that sort, it probably would've sounded smarter if had said it. And he wouldn't sound like a 16 year old girl… Suddenly a picture of Neji with high pigtails popped into my head and I couldn't resist giggling.

Anyways, as I was saying. I wasn't a morning person. I hated them. I was always slow and negative and groggy and somewhere around 8am to noon my mood would do a one-eighty and I would be my normal cheerful, determined, shy, over-thinking self. But, I never tried to make myself miserable on good mornings. It seemed stupid, to purposely ruin a good mood and besides, I liked going with the flow most the time. And I always followed the flow of my emotions when I could, at least inside my mind. Because it was kind of hard not to. I was a pretty emotional person. I wonder how Neji must feel on our team, surrounded by emotional people. Granted, I wasn't extreme about it like the guys were, but still.

I realized that I must've been staring at the ceiling for a long time. I wondered how much time my ridiculous train of thought took. I was almost afraid to look at the alarm clock. Wincing slightly, I turned my head and checked the time. And, I had plenty. I didn't even need to rush anything.

I flung the cover off my body and jumped gracefully off of my bed. I made my bed without a frown or a grumble. I quickly picked out my everyday outfit and resisted bringing my weapons and scrolls with me in the bathroom. I washed my body quickly and left my hair dry, I would wash it later tonight. It took so long to dry I couldn't get away with washing it in the wee hours of the morning. As usual, I came out of the bathroom smelling like lavender.

Once I had put on my clothes, I went out and got two little canisters as well as two thick elastics the colour of my hair. I twisted one half of my hair up into its customary bun and opened one canister. They had little poison darts that I could easily fit into my hair. It was also very easy to conceal. It was one of the main reason I still wore my hair in two buns. I wrapped the elastic around it a few times then proceeded to put in my adorable, dependable little darts. I thanked Kami that I had mastered this years ago because I wouldn't have been able to put up with doing this everyday if it was as time-consuming and frustrating as it used to be. I stopped looking up into the corner and started concentrating on putting the little suckers in my other bun. I had fixed it on autopilot when I was thinking rather than concentrating… which happened more than I liked.

Peering close I realised my eyes were perfect today. Which was unusual. There were no dark circles, no bags underneath my eyes, and my eyes weren't even slightly bloodshot. My skin was clear and to be honest I was a little apprehensive. Things were way too easy and uneasy as I was, I was still very happy. Giving my head a firm shake I took my weapons and scrolls and started putting them in their place. It was always hard to find where to conceal your weapons in different outfits, not to mention adjusting to its limitations and the feel of the new fabric. There was a reason ninja's rarely changed their attire and had many versions of the same articles of clothing. This outfit was fairly new (only got it a few months ago) and I had to focus and remember where exactly which weapon went.

And Ta-da I was ready! I glanced back at the clock. I frowned, I actually had time for breakfast today, which again was very strange. I took a sugary pastry and some coffee and even after consuming those at my own pace I had time to brush my teeth and wash my face. This was honestly becoming ridiculous.

Sighing harshly I got up from the sofa in my living room and made my way to the training ground where the rest of Team 10 would be.

**xXx**

I made my way there slowly, basking in the sun. The sky looked even prettier here surrounded my nature then it did in my apartment. Smiling a little, I skipped. When I finally got to the area where my teammates were I stopped in my tracks. Lee and Gai-sensei were LITERALLY running around in circles with tears streaming down their faces making pathetic little puppy whimpers. Neji was in the shadow of a tree and to my surprise, he wasn't meditating. He was standing up and leaning on the large trunk or the tree, and he was glaring at me. He looked really annoyed… I knew I was being really giddy this morning. Believe me I knew and it even surprised me but there was no reason to be so…

"You're late." Neji snapped.

I tilted my head and thought back to the time on my clock. I was about to reply that I wasn't late and finally call him out on being wrong for once but then I thought… Neji looked pissed, Lee and Gai-sensei were overreacting about something. If I was late, which I never was, it wouldn't be surprising if they acted the way they were now. Neji would be mad, Gai-sensei and Lee would be crying probably imaging some dramatic scenario where I would be kidnapped by vicious burglars or fallen ill with some deadly disease and then proceed to freak out and run around. Then it was almost like flashes of lighting the way my mind connected everything. The sun was much too high for 5 am, I was much too well rested for only getting about 4 hours of sleep… and the clock… THE CLOCK KEPT SHOWING THE SAME NUMBERS OVER AND OVER. Realization dawned on me and I bet that Neji (and now Gai-sensei and Lee who had noticed me after Neji snapped at me) could see my face change with this epiphany.

"MY CLOCK WAS BROKEN!" I said loudly while slapping my forehead. I dragged the hand down over my eyes and peeked sheepishly at Neji through them.

"Umm…. just how late… am I?" I asked tentatively.

Neji stared at me sternly and shockingly so did the ever-cheerful and carefree Lee and Gai-sensei.

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

"You're five hours late, TenTen." He said while managing to sound patient and yet annoyed at the same time.

"Shit" I swore.

"TENTEN! ONE MUST NOT USE SUCH UNYOUTHFUL LANGUAGE!"

"YES HER LANGUAGE IS VERY UNYOUTHFUL INDEED GAI-SENSEI!"

"A BEAUTIFUL FLOWER CANNOT REMAIN BEAUTIFUL WHEN ONE POURS DIRTY WORDS LIKE GARBAGE ON IT."

"THAT WAS A PERFECT METAPHOR SENSEI! AND SO VERY RIGHT TOO!"

They continued on raving about my dirty mouth and metaphors and blossoms. I trudged my way over to Neji's side and looked up into his face, which was still weird because he used to be much shorter and I didn't have to tilt my head at all. He looked down at me, a slight smirk on his handsome face (that bastard!).

"Yes, TenTen?" He asked condescendingly.

"Not an exact science, my ass"

And at that statement he gave an involuntary little chuckle. He squashed it as soon as he could, but he still had a wide smile on his face. Which of course, he tried to smother and hide behind his chocolate brown hair.

"You really weren't kidding when you said you were slow on mornings" He said. His smile was gone but I realised with some satisfaction that he still had a genuinely amused smirk in its place.

His arm shot up at a speed that made me jump and he reached quickly for something behind him.

I watched the peach fly, almost hitting Gai-Sensei and Lee.

"FUCK!" Gai-sensei swore caught unaware by the fruit while he was mid-rant with his favorite spandex clad pupil.

Lee gasped in shock.

"THAT WAS MOST UNYOUTHFUL OF YOU" Lee cried.

"I'M SO SORRY I DISAPOINTED YOU ALL SO DEEPLY, ESCPECIALLY YOU LEE" sensei said dramatically.

"GAI-SENSEI THIS IS SIMPLY UNIMAGINABLE, APPALING. I DO NOT KNOW IF I CAN FORGIVE THIS… THIS… CARELESS USE OF FOUL WORDS! YOU ARE A POTTY MOUTH GAI-SENSEI!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" Gai shouted at the sky, falling onto his knees.

It took me a while to process this, but when I did I couldn't stop laughing.

Lee and sensei kept arguing.

I kept laughing.

Lee and Gai-sensei were reconciling.

I was on the floor, still laughing and wiping tears out of my eyes.

I looked up through blurry eyes at Neji standing tall and I swore that he was looking down at me, a tiny smile on his face.

**xXx**

**A/N: So what did you think? It was just a little something different and I can promise you it won't be this fluffy for long. But I wanted to start this fic on a light-hearted note, since, well, you know…**

**Anyway:**

**PLEASE LEAVE REVIEWS. And please subscribe and favorite my story.**

**Thanks so much for reading!**

**Borntolose7**


	2. meditation and mission briefing

**A/N: Thank you people who have made it this far! And just to emphasize, the chapter was entitled tenten's **_**strange**_** morning, meaning it was a strange chapter and all the characters were a little OOC. In this chapter the characters will all be more in character (or so I hope, really my main motivation for this chapter is to get rid of this random anxiety so I can sleep). Anyway, I truly hope you guys enjoy this chapter and story! **** soooooooooooo, here we go! Oh and I switched the POV to third person, I'll make the changed to chapter 1 very soon. **

Chapter 2

Meditation and mission briefing

_Think of nothing._

_Nothing._

_Blades of grass._

_Calm. _

…_._

…_._

…_._

Tenten slowly opened her eyes and the sun promptly assaulted them. She winced. But, all in all the kunoichi was pretty proud she had lasted so long in her attempt at meditation. She had thought of nothing for most of it as well, so she was willing to consider it a success. She got up and stretched her limbs, eager to get active and to start training.

Suddenly she stopped and blinked a few more times, confused.

Where were Lee and Gai-sensei? They were, after all the ones who suggested that they all tried out meditating this morning, much to Neji's annoyance.

"They gave up on meditating a while ago and started doing laps, didn't they?" She asked.

Neji, the picture of calm and poise, gave a small nod. He was still meditating of course. She looked away from him and up at the target painted on the tree a few feet above his head.

In seconds, cool metal came in contact with her skin. The weapons master briefly reveled in the feeling of her beautiful weapons in her hands before she sent them flying towards the centre of the target.

_Clunk_

_Chink_

_Thump _

She frowned, annoyed. She could just tell that her speed was off. Her aim, as per usual, was nearly perfect. But her speed, she knew that the meditation had made her lethargic as well as her body. She sent a few more kunais and shuriken towards the target with more force and tried to force her mind to sharpen itself, but still she received the same result. Eventually, she got her rhythm back, admittedly after some grumbling and growling about it during the process( Neji remained still and expressionless), but she couldn't care less as the end result was the same: she and her weapons were back to its regular speed, force and deadly accuracy. And apparently not a moment too soon, because it was then that Lee and Gai came speeding back in their green spandex suits, looking excited and about to jump out of their legwarmers.

"500 laps?" She asked.

"300 my dear Tenten! But oh, we have news so much more wonderful then our youthful challenges!" Gai declared dramatically.

"Really?" She doubted it.

"YES! Hokage-sama has enlisted the help of Team Guy for an A-rank mission!" Lee yelled.

The reactions from Tenten and Neji were instantaneous. Neji's eyes opened quickly and his eyes darted over to him, and Tenten's eyes widened in excitement. It had been so long that they had had a good, difficult mission. Especially as a team, since Neji and Guy had been doing many solo ones lately.

"What is the description of our duties?" The Hyuga asked.

"Hmmmmmmm?" Gai hummed.

"Details." Neji gritted out, annoyed.

"Oh, well I told Lady Hokage that we would all get briefed on this mission together. Isn't that more fun?"

It wasn't exactly more fun, she pondered. It definitely made more sense though, it was all well and good to be briefed by teammates on a C or B-rank mission, however, on a more important mission, it was much simpler and more efficient to receive all the knowledge and information first hand in clear and precise words. Getting the information from teammates, no matter who they were, was never really a good idea in her opinion. Information could be forgotten, little bits and pieces that in the right minds could be put together and get the mission done and there was always the problem of your team mates being too vague and in result getting yourself into missions that you barely have a clue of what you're supposed to be doing. Yes, Tenten much preferred the professionalism of getting briefed by an intelligent shinobi( and this one being Lady Tsunade at that) with extensive knowledge of the mission and the information printed out in front of them plainly than to get it from a teammate.

No one really responded to Gai's question. Everyone was too anxious to get on with the mission. So they all headed off to the Hokage's office.

xxxxxxXxxxxxx

"Your mission is in the village hidden in the grass. There has been a rogue ninja terrorising several towns and murdering dozens of people. The ninja has been identified as male and has been reported to have had red hair and been about 5'9. He does not seem to discriminate his victims, as he has killed, townsfolk, farmers, store owners, ninja and so on. Most likely it seems he's intent on murdering whoever he can without getting caught as there is no pattern. It is unlikely that he has a specific purpose. Unfortunately, he is a very talented ninja.

I chose your team because it was requested that we have some of our best on the case."

The hokage said, finishing with a sigh.

"We will do our best,Hokage-sama" Lee said, and in a rare show of solemnity, bowed.

"You will leave tomorrow at dawn"

As they were walking out of the office, Tenten hung back to walk next to Neji.

"So what do you think?" She asked softly.

"About what exactly?"

"About having to go all the way to grass to get rid of this murderer? It seems unlikely don't you think? That they asked for our help? They have plenty of talented ninja and this doesn't seem so extreme as to get help from the Leaf! They would avoid it if they could, and in this case they probably could, because of what happened at the Chunin exams! Personally, I don't see too much of a problem since no one there suspected Orochimaru to be there disguised as a Grass ninja! But I also know that they aren't proud of it and have done their best not to impose on us, and deal with anything "inconvenient" themselves!"

"It should seem unlikely. In these times, though, I would bet that the Leaf and Grass are trying to strengthen their alliance." Neji spoke. Making sense of her somewhat confusing train of thought as well as confirming some of the thoughts that were kicking around in the woman's head.

"There will be a war sometime soon." She said.

It was not a question.

"Most likely. I suspect we will have many missions dealing with other countries." He said.

Inwardly, Tenten couldn't help the crushing feeling in her chest. Missions were exciting. War, however was not. She could tell from the haunted looks in the eyes of the generations before her, the eyes of the ones who had seen real war, that had seen true and agonizing suffering. She was not anxious to possess that same look.

Yes, she was quite sure war would be here soon. The idea had been going through her head for a while now and what Neji had said, brief as it was, had confirmed it. She trusted his judgement. He was raised among the Hyuga clan, among diplomats and people readers, and he was smart.

Tenten just hoped the soon she was thinking of was in more than a few years from now.

She also hoped that her favorite store still had those poisoned tipped senbons she had seen the other day.

**A/N: Ok, so that was another shorty. But I hoped you liked it! Next chapter we get to see some action and some adventure! Yay! I hope this story isn't moving too slow for you. Tell me in your reviews what you thought of this chapter! It would make my day! **


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